broken system
by boratofkhazakistan
Summary: time lost meaning once a certain amount of it passed. holding on to his sanity after so much failure was already hard enough, but the human mind was only designed to exist for so long. will jaune finally arrive at his goal after so long, or will his mind uncoil around him before he can save the ones who matter. loop fic set after the fall of beacon. first ever story so expect some


**Hey theyre folks, this is just a ting i typed up in a drunken stupor a couple months back. First time writing a story so im fairly green, but I cleaned it up a bit and decided no harm in casting it out into the world. This will be a loop fic in the same vein as not this time fate by that sexy british bastard coeur. Ill definitely be borrowing elements from that story but ill try and make sure this isn't just a cheap rehash of his ideas.**

**Anyway this almost works as a prologue to introduce the state of jaune and kinda show where things are. Lmk if youd like it to continue or hurl insults at me if youd like it to stop.**

**enjoy!**

The passing of time seemed to slow down in an instant.

A strange calm came over him as he barreled through the air like a ragdoll. Thoughts of action films came to mind.

Of the instant were time shifted downward as the villian fell to his doom. when you'd see the realization, fear, and resignation flicker across their face as they accepted that they in fact were about to meet their end. Jaunes grimace lacked the existential fear in the films. And Jaune liked to believe that he wasn't one of the bad guys.

But that didn't mean he didn't hate himself

In an instant everything sped up. The ground hurtled up to meet him as he crashed with a sickening crunch into the dirt meters away from where he'd been launched. Fires raged around him in the forest clearing accompanied by the clangs of steel meeting steel and grunts of exertion from members of both parties.

There was a moment of silence as he hugged the dirt, followed by mortified gasps not to far from him.

He lethargically tilted his head up to meet the eye of his assailant.

Cold. Enraged. murderous. Cinder falls eye was like a pit of molten steel as she gazed down upon him, The cursed power setting her remaining orb alight in the dim hours of the evening, He'd be lying if he said there wasn't a grim sense of satisfaction that suffused through him at the fact that he'd obviously cracked her confident facade.

She wasn't jabbing at his failures or speaking to him as if she was scolding a child.

Now she approached with caution that could be seen in the tension in her movements. No longer was he a fraudulent boy playing at heroism.

Cinder saw a threat.

But in an instant that look was replaced with a tight smile. One of sadistic glee at a job well done. He must not have cut a very intimidating figure splayed on the ground as he was. He could barely feel any part of his body as blackness encircled his peripheral vision. He tasted dirt and blood as a deep wheeze accompanied his every breath but ever the workhorse he pushed on. First upwards, until his legs failed him and he splashed across the ground with as much grace as a lead weight. He remained unfazed. His body breaking down was more familiar than the face of his mother.

So he dragged himself across the ground, raking his body across the dirt and debris in an effort to meet the object of his hatred head on.

Panting as he slowly pulled himself toward the threat He heard screams. Somewhere in the back of his conscious he realized it was his name being cried out. they didn't realize that he had nothing to fear in danger anymore. he couldn't blame them for their concern, and loved them all the more for it.

He simply hoped the distraction wouldn't get them killed As it had many times before.

But on the next swing of his arms forward they hit something. Something human, a body of flesh and cloth. His blood ran cold as memories of his friends drained of color with vacant stares danced behind his eyes. he struggled to lift himself to view what he prayed wasn't the corpse of another friend swallowed by this endless war he waged. But he saw no one he cared for. Nor one of salem's lieutenants. He saw legs...legs and nothing else. Disembodied and strewn a few paces away from each other. Blue jeans. A red sash. _His_ sneakers. It took a moment before it clicked into place.

Oh…

How unfortunate.

The agony poured through him like an icy fire through his veins as if waiting for him to make the discovery before it made itself known.

Through gritted teeth he saw a pair of feet before his face

"I'll admit this much arc,"cinder started "I'd never considered for a moment that you and this motley Crew of ozpin's rejects would ever be a real threat after beacon. Maybe the silver eyes or even her sister, but out of all the variables I accounted for I must say you have been an unexpected thorn in my side." she clicked her tongue in disgust as if his name tasted like the ash he would soon be. "After I killed your partner I expected you to crumble to the wind in much the same fashion she did but I can see that I was mistaken. Take some solace in knowing that you managed to prove yourself as a competent opponent." She kneeled down before his face with a cruel smirk speckled across her sullied face "but forces much bigger than you or I are at play here. And better warriors then you have tried and failed to change them. this is where I leave you jaune. Say hello to the champion for me"

Around him the sounds of battle came to an abrupt halt, and he heard cinder bark something that his bleeding body lacked the strength to comprehend.

And then she was gone.

Morbid curiosity drove Jaune to turn to the best of his ability. To see himself, or the lack his legs had been cut cleanly from his body at the top of his thigh.

He didn't want to imagine the state of his manhood. The pain was receding.

in its stead he felt a cold come over what limbs he still had. He was dying. Again.

A pair of lithe arms grasped at his shoulders and turned him over onto his back.

He saw the face of his fellow leader, but instead of her usual cheery smile and bright eyes he saw only horror and desperation in the pools of silver.

"We have to cauterize the wounds before he bleeds out" she spat to his teamates. he could see the anguish lacing itself into her being as she started to point the blame for this outcome inward. as she frantically barked orders out to there team, he couldn't bring himself to care about his wounds or his inevitable end.

He loved them. God's he loved them. And even though he knew he'd see them again it was never exactly the same. The little idiosyncrasies present in the past year would change and he'd be left with an empty sense of who they werent. Who they would never be. his hand reached up shakily to cup her cheek. Instantly she froze like a deer in knew what was coming, and she could sense that she wasn't going to like it at all

"P-please ruby…" his voice was worn and gutteral as it came out a heavy rasp " would you just *cough*... Would you just hold me for a minute." if this was the last time he was to meet this iteration of her he'd like his time spent in her arms

She complied instantly and looked down onto his marred face

"j-jaune, we called for an evacuation a while ago, they should*sob*... should be h-here any minute just please … hold on." She whimpered. Her eyes were closed and her brows taught like the stings of the guitar he hadn't played in decades. Or was it a century? He lacked the hindsight to know. And he lacked the strength to care. "please not again. Oh God oh God oh-" as she divulged into muttering over and over as she took in the extent to which he'd been mangled. Jaune took a moment to take in the scene. He needed to see it, burn it into his mind to fuel this time his friends were in time he made her cry for him.

And every time he cried for her. He deserved the ache it brought to his heart. He'd failed them all again, but this image would push him to be better. To get a little bit closer to his goal.

He'd witnessed similar scenes all to many times before.

And all to many times the roles were reversed

"You know…" he gasped a labored breath "i can't remember my mother's name. I can't remember my like theres this void of emotions I have in my gut. Love im supposed to feel but its been so long i...i think there's something wrong with me"

a soft chuckle passed his body before turning into a spasm the left him hacking his lungs out.

Whatever bleak humour he found in his statement she obviously didn't reciprocate

"Shut up and save your strength! You can joke around when we're safe!" Her eyes were shut tight and her hands we're grabbing a fist full of his trusty hoodie. His thoughts floated back to the times that she's taken his bunny sweater off him. Or all the better he'd caught her wearing it and little else. He could sense that someone must have been trying to stem the blood that was flowing from his missing limbs. Be it a tourniquet or just putting pressure on his stumps, he knew it was a useless endeavor. From the look on the red reapers face... that realization was dawning on her too

"Ruby…" he whispered airily. "Every time I try and think of them. Try and recall the people who raised me, i can't find them. They've been replaced in my head and… and now i see someone else All i can see is you."

He felt the air leave her

"I don't have anything left outside of you guys. Nothing to hold onto except the family ive gained in meeting you. So I don't regret that it has to be this way ruby. So dont ask me too."

Maybe this was cruel. Both to a family whose son had forgotten them, as well as the girl who currently cradled him. but With the world In The state of destruction it was the chances of finding 1 prosthetic like Yang's robotic arm, let alone a second as well as someone with the tools and know how to connect them to him we're not what one would call betting odds, And there was no way he would let himself sit back crippled as his friends were picked off one by one. Hed seen it all too many times before since this hell started. he couldn't bear it. He had to fix this. He had to go back.

His body was in shut down. The last vestiges of his strength were slipping out onto the cold hard grass of Mistral. The shaking in Ruby's shoulders slowly came to a halt as an eerie calm slid over her face. He couldn't help but think that the look didn't suit her. As though she was a marionette with eyes devoid of life... more so than himself. She stared into his own dimming irises.

"Jaune… your going to die" she said flatly, tone halfway between a question and a statement.

"I know"

Her hair cast over eyes, she looked for some kind of answer in the blood and dirt beneath them.

It seemed she didn't like what she saw

"This is my fault. If you hadn't of followed me… if you hadn't of come here you'd still be-"

"Stop. You didn't force me to do a damn thing." his voice commanded little authority in its current state, but he needed to make his peace before he left this plane for a new one. "I chose *cough* t-to follow you because I _believed _in you. I wanted it just as bad as you did and I couldn't live with myself if I knowingly let you off on your own only to get yourself killed because I chose to do nothing. Your the ones… the ones that matter." there lives were precious. His were endless. She was the one who mattered right now. Not him

"I don't regret any of it if that's what your for a second. It doesn't matter how many- how many times it takes ruby. I'm going to fix going to get it right"

And all at once the dam bursts forth again as she sobbed. His words probably came of as delirious ramblings of a brain shutting off but before he could say his final goodbye she slammed her lips into his. It wasn't the passionate kisses they'd had in the past, nor the reserved pecks that turned her face red the first few times they shared them.

It was filled with pain,anger,desperation and heart ache. She pulled back a scant few inches as her face twisted into a pained grimace as if bracing for a blow about to come.

Blackness was overtaking him

He saw her mouth move. He could barely hear what she was saying at this point But he read her lips

So she loved him? He already knew Hed been around her too long not to know at this point. Just a pity it took until now to say it this time. He should say it. He'd loved her for god knows how many decades now. In a moment or two all of this would cease to be as the world folded in on itself and dragged him kicking a screaming with it. If it gave her some small comfort in her last moments then He'd be damned if he denied it to her He'd go backwards, and the past 9 months would belong solely to his memories. He managed to make out her silver eyes as the glowed from her skull, one last look of beauty before he checked out

"I…" he wheezed " I lo- I lov-"

The words died in his throat,

And he along with them

How cruel.

**Prologues done. I cant tell if the idea of jaune not realizing his legs are gone is cool or just a dumb bit of edginess but regardless here it is. Broken system is a go **

**See you whenever i have enough free time to shoot another hot load of word juice into your noggins friends**


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